Masterlock Pro Series 6121

[undeadspacehippie]

Wow - all this talk about these locks being easy is wittling my ego back down to normal size. I was visiting my father and he knows I like locks, so he brings me to the tool shed and shows me the new lock he has. I opended it in under a minute the first time I tried. I thought for sure he had it re-keyed at work but he says that he did not. After that he gave me the lock and put something else on the shed. I still have it in my practice line up.

[Squelchtone]

I didn't want to start a new thread about the 6121 so I'm adding this here..

I picked a 6121 Pro Series today. It was a pain and took about 4 to 5 minutes. I had never tried a 6121 before, but I could tell I was dealing with security pins because as I raked the plug would turn about 20 degrees and then nothing. I finally raked outward quickly, with medium pulsing tension and when I pulled the pick all the way out during the raking outwards, the lock opened! I was pretty happy until the last 8 guys in this thread said 'this is such an easy lock' I'm happy to learn that it has 5 spool drivers, and I feel pretty good that I can actually pick a lock with those installed.

did I do well for a first try on this model lock?

Squelchtone

ps. I used a hook and a half diamond trying to false set and then pin by pin. the half diamond was in use when I actually picked it.

[ThE_MasteR]

I didn't want to start a new thread about the 6121 so I'm adding this here..

I picked a 6121 Pro Series today. It was a pain and took about 4 to 5 minutes. I had never tried a 6121 before, but I could tell I was dealing with security pins because as I raked the plug would turn about 20 degrees and then nothing. I finally raked outward quickly, with medium pulsing tension and when I pulled the pick all the way out during the raking outwards, the lock opened! I was pretty happy until the last 8 guys in this thread said 'this is such an easy lock' I'm happy to learn that it has 5 spool drivers, and I feel pretty good that I can actually pick a lock with those installed.

did I do well for a first try on this model lock?

Squelchtone

ps. I used a hook and a half diamond trying to false set and then pin by pin. the half diamond was in use when I actually picked it.

Try picking this lock the hard way, pin by pin. I find raking isn't really challenging since your not really doing any except for going in and out of the lock. Raking a lock is more for an emergency, but when you are at home having fun picking a lock, it should be pin by pin.

[Squelchtone]

Try picking this lock the hard way, pin by pin. I find raking isn't really challenging since your not really doing any except for going in and out of the lock. Raking a lock is more for an emergency, but when you are at home having fun picking a lock, it should be pin by pin.

Hey man, I appreciate the advice about picking pin by pin and I know that's the more challanging way to open any lock, but shoot.. I consider myself a beginner/intermediate picker so no matter what method, I did manage to open a pro series 6121 which to me is a pretty big deal. I say it's still pretty cool that I managed to rake 5 spool pins. and don't tell me you don't rake, we all do, and not just in emergencies.

I'm not an on call lock-out guy, this is just a hobby for me, so I don't think it matters which method I use at home, the point is to learn all of the methods for as many locks as possible. The point of it for me is opening a lock, not how I go about doing it. I think until I learn better feedback and feel for the pins, raking is a fine way to get my feet wet and build up some confidence. I've been trying to mix it up with false setting by raking then doing pin by pin, and I have a feeling that's how I got that model padlock open. anyway.. don't beat up on the new guy for posting an achievement. if you can do it in 10 seconds pin by pin, thats great, but I can't.

we all start somewhere right?

Squelchtone

[pradselost]

I wouldn't really say he was beating up on you persay...his post seemed fairly cordial, and he was just noting that as a pin by pin pick, the Masterlock 6121 provides a lot of challenge, and that raking a lock open rarely constitutes "picking" it.

Personally I never use rakes when I'm picking recreationally as I feel I learn nothing from them. I do admit to using rakes when I'm in a hurry, such as times I've been locked out of the house and I know full well that my front door lock gives into a rake with relative ease but I'm too tired from a day at work to pick it. However I've never used rakes when meeting a new lock, but that's more of a personal preference than anything....I find that when I rake to a false set, I'm less confident with the lock because I have to go through and find out what sort of binding actions and such happened within the lock that I had nothing to do with.

In terms of raking to false set, it's a fairly acceptable means to bypass some of the pinsetting at the beginning of a pick but, meh, my personal preference has always been single pin due to the increased challenge and learning aspect.

[p1ckf1sh]

squelchtone, I totally agree with everything I said. Raking has is a tech different from pin-by-pin but it is totally valid and has ir's right to be called a picking technique.

You describe that you usually rake a lock first and after opening it go to pin-by-pin. That is just how I do it. I usually rake or bogota my way into getting to know the lock, maybe get a false set and then open by setting the false set pins. After that I go pure pin-by-in with my hook. Once I got it that way I go pin-by-pin using a halfdiamond or other tool. And once I can reliably pick the lock with multiple techniques and tools I either repin it or (in case of my padlocks) I start using exotic tools like bent paperclips or security pins or other crap. I think the learning curve is best that way, as you don't get too focused on that one single tool but are rather concentrating on the actual manipulation process, regardless of which tools is used. And it keeps the motivation up....

[Legion303]

Try picking this lock the hard way, pin by pin.

I've found just the opposite with serrated spool pins, when the lock is pinned high-low at least. Raking works great when it's pinned 12345, but otherwise I couldn't rake it at ALL. I learned single-pin picking in a hurry when I repinned my padlock randomly and had no other way to get it open.

-steve

[illusion]

If you have a high-low etc.. lock then you'll find it useful to vary the tension you apply. Try to get used to reducing the tension enough to let the pins slide back gently, but not fully. It won't come quickly, but few things to in the picking world.

When you can do this with a high level of precision you will be able to lift every pin higher than need be, and drop it down to the sheerline, avoiding top security pins, and if using light tension usualy the security bottom pins.

[undeadspacehippie]

If you have a high-low etc.. lock then you'll find it useful to vary the tension you apply. Try to get used to reducing the tension enough to let the pins slide back gently, but not fully.

I've just started knowing this, I can almost hear the pin hit the pick as they come down and then the locks usually rotate or click open. Thanks for this tip.

[illusion]

Yeah, you've got it undeadspacehippie.

I find feathering the tension slightly helps with pins I have overset (which seems to be happening a lot lately for some reason )

When first trying all the pins will fall down at once, but when you get a bit more tension control, you'll find you can feel the pin move down gently. It's quite to watch it being done on a cut-away.